Tata Steel bags multi-million pound order from Siemens

Tata Steel has bagged a multi-million pound order from engineering giant Siemens Wind Power for the supply of 25,000 tonnes of high quality profiled steel plate for 150 wind turbine towers, it said on Thursday.

Tata Steel has bagged a multi-million pound order from engineering giant Siemens Wind Power for the supply of 25,000 tonnes of high quality profiled steel plate for 150 wind turbine towers, it said on Thursday.

"The order -- the largest to date for the steel company's dedicated wind tower hub in Scunthorpe, England -- is worth an eight figure pound sum and establishes Tata Steel as a key supplier to Siemens Wind Power," the company said in a statement.

Tata Steel will deliver the profiled plate, cut into the desired shape, between April and September this year, it added.

"Demand for steel in the renewable energy sector will continue to grow and we are ideally placed to help our customers tap into this important opportunity," Tata Steel Commercial Manager for Power Generation Phil Knowles said.

Knowles added, "The agreement we have negotiated with Siemens Wind Power is a strategic customer alliance that will help in our objective to be a key supplier in the offshore wind power market."

The multi-million pound order from Siemens comes at a time when Europe's steel industry is struggling to cope with lower demand amid economic uncertainty in the euro zone.

Tata Steel Europe, in particular, has been hit severely by the crisis, with its gross earnings (EBITDA) falling by 42.8% to $103 million in the June-September quarter of 2011. The company has mothballed a blast furnace in Scunthrope and a hot strip mill in Llanwern in Wales in recent times.

The company statement said it has already supplied Siemens Wind Power with 6,000 tonnes of steel plate for similar developments in the UK and Europe.

The order is the largest so far for its dedicated wind tower site in Scunthorpe, UK, which was established in 2010. The plant can deliver up to 2,00,000 tonnes of steel plates annually.

Following the announcement, shares of Tata Steel were trading at Rs 433.70 apiece on the BSE at 1400 hours, up 2.08% from their previous close.